H3 



"SYNOPSIS" 



HalTs Cotton Maturing and 
Reclainning Process 



Means a Complete Revolution in the 
Cotton Industry of the World 



ARTIFICIAL COnON MATURING 

PREVENTING IMMATURE, FROST-BITTEN AND 

UNOPENED BOLLS 



Stops Waste and Practically 
Eliminates the Boll-Weevil 



Copyright 1913 

BY 

John Bishop Hall 



John J. Matlack, 1133 Land Title Bldg., Phlla., Pa. 



f\ r / 



Co - 



The Following Are the Vital Results to Be 
Obtained By Using the Hall Process : 

"The Commercial Museum, 
34th Street, below Spruce Street, 

Philadelphia, February 2"], 1912. 
Mr. John B. Hall, 

Hotel Walton. 
My dear Mr. Hall : 

After a thorough investigation into your 
methods I am convinced that by it you can pro- 
duce, from the cotton now going to waste, from 
$75,000,000 to $100,000,000 yearly of a grade of 
cotton approaching "Middling" and at the same 
time practically exterminate the boll-weevil. 

I have made a special study of just these cotton 
conditions for a long term of years, and therefore 
know you are stating facts. 

Very truly yours, 

(Signed) Fred D. Maisch." 

1. There would be no more immature or frost-bitten^ . 

baving of 

bolls such as are now going to waste. A great saving oi^"^^^^^ 
the cotton now blown off by the wind after maturing 
would also be made. 

2. This method would obviate the loss of cotton ir- ^a^.i„g^,f 
recoverable owing to scarcity of labor. One workman ^''^"'" 
would be able to do the work of many, the "picking" of 

the whole bolls from the plants would be infinitely 
quicker than picking out the matured cotton from the 
bolls on the stalk. 

'\. Referring to a mechanical cotton-picker, C. W. Millions saved 

^ '=' ' Yearly in Pick- 

Burkett in "Cotton" (page 51) says: Mfthod"' 

"Suppose it reduces the cost of picking by just 
half? Picking now costs $100,000,000 a year — 



Saving of 
space and In- 
crease in Size 
of Bolls with 
Improved 
seed. 



think of saving jnst $50,000,000 annually to the 
South ! Or to put it differently, 'To pick a crop 
of 11,000,000 bales, at an average of 150 pounds 
of seed cotton a day per picker, means that for a 
picking season of three months, consisting of 
twenty working days each, somewhat over 
1,830,000 people must be kept at work.' " 

So without investing any money in a cotton picking 
machine, the planter would obtain reliable results with 
no skipping of cotton, as is the case with any meclianical 
contri\'ance. You can estimate just how much quicker a 
picker could snip off these bolls like roses instead of hav- 
ing to hunt for the mature cotton and "draw his hand 
back and forth and put each separate handful into his 
picking sack." So, on a basis of a man picking twice as 
much cotton a day by this method, it would not only mean 
a saving of $50,000,000 a year to the South, but it would 
release 915,000 people to other industries for a fourth of 
each year. This would mean to cotton planters every- 
where twice as much work and return from the laborer 
without any additional cost. 

4. By this method a greater number of cotton plants 
could be planted to a row, and more rows to the acre, as 
the amount of sun required by this process would be 
much less than is now the case to mature the bolls ; the 
space, therefore, between the plants would be less and 
the plants placed closer together. Tb.e bolls thus grown 
practically in the shade would grow larger before reach- 
ing maturity, the staple longer and the seed heavier. 
This new seed will go far toward producing other and 
better varieties. 

On pages 44 and 45 of C. VV. Burkett's book 



Insurance C. 

against care- "^ ,, 

less seed "CottOn llC SayS 

selection. 



"Just take the bald statement of Dr. H. J. 
Webber : 'The average vield of cotton in the 



United States is only about 190 pounds of lint per 
acre, while on many large tracts carefully culti- 
vated a yield of 500 to 800 ix)unds per acre is fre- 
quently obtained.' " 

Mr. Burkett further says on page 44, that the above 
paragraph "is material for a book of sermons." 

"Seed Selection May Increase Yield 30 to 50 Per 
Cent." "The seed for the cotton crop are probably se- 
lected with less care than are seed for any other farm 
crop that men grow." "The cotton farmer will pay high 
prices for improved seeds for other products, but wlien it 
comes to seed for his cotton crops he is strangely care- 
less. The average farmer gets his seed haphazard from 
the general supply at the gin — good, bad, indifferent, 
* * * * varieties all mixed." "We know a farmer who 
by a few years' seed selection has increased the yield of 
cotton thus im|;ro\'ed from 400 to 600 pounds, while seed 
selected in the old wav, grown on similar land and under 
similar conditions still makes its bare 400 pounds per 
acre. Fifty per cent, increase from four years' selection 
of seed !" (C. W. Burkett in "Cotton," pages 44 and 45. ) 

With the planting of tlie improved seed (which woukl 
undoubtedl}' follo\v with the improved cotton matured by 
our process) this increase in the. yield of cotton per acre 
v^■ould be automatic in its actions, and make the selection 
of seed, therefore, mnre and more "careless proof." It 
is impossible to cst'mate how much more money this 
would mean to the planter in the future, without any ad- 
ditional effort or expense on his part. 

6. Cotton matured bv this process would undoubtedh Superiority 

^ ^ - ot texture. 

be far superior to the same grade of cotton naturally ma- 
tured because cotton as matured now on the field while 
waiting to be picked, is subjected to the dews or chill of 
tlie nitjht followed bv the heat of the sun next dav or 



possibly some days of rain or climatic conditions of some 
kind (together with the dirt and dust l)lown on the cot- 
ton), all certainly deteriorating and weakening it from 
the standard it was when the boll first bnrst. In our 
quick maturing process under cover, none of these 
weather conditions exists. The gloss on this artificially 
matured cotton would be of a brilliancy and whiteness, 
free from all w-eather stains, far superior to that possible 
on any cotton naturally matured and exposed lo deterio- 
rating weather conditions. The fibre also would certainly 
be much stronger for the same reason. 

method 7- Every planter will unciuestionably use this new 

fmp"s's7bie"^ process for gathering and maturing cotton, because it is 
not only cheaper and saves all cotton waste, but the 
product matured will be much superior than is now pro- 
duced. If he continued under his present methods h.e 
would not only have his present loss and expense, but he 
would obtain a far lower price for his inferior and stained 
cotton than his neighbor (producing this new prodiicr'; 
would recei\'e. This makes the present methods eco- 
nomically impossible. 



Weather in- 
surance and 
increased 
production. 



8. All bolls within three weeks or a month of ma- 
turity can be picked from the stalks at any time when the 
crop is threatened with danger, either from the elements 
or from any pest w'hatever, thus giving insurance against 
weather and pests. By picking the bolls three weeks o" 
a month before maturity, the strength of the plant would 
be increased and the remaining bolls would grow larger 
from the increased substance they would obtain from the 
plant. 



Saving of 
top-crop. 



9. The top-crop (a great quantity of which now goes 
to w-aste due to maturing late and an early fall and early 
frost checking not only the maturing of the bolls but kill- 
ing them) would be completely saved by this process, and 



there would be, of course, no more "frost-bitten or im- 
mature bolls." 

10. The boll-weevil, which is rapidlv extendin"- over rT,^'''"'^'"'V^ 

i - ti '- boU-weevil. 

the entire cotton district of the South, and has already, 
since its appearance, estimated to have caused a loss of 
$125,000,000, represented by 2,550,000 bales of cotton, 
as stated by the A;^ricr,ltural Department at Washington, 
D. C, October 30, 191 2, would be practically exter- 
minated, as per extract from letter of Secretary Wilson 
of the National Department of Agriculture, of March 12, 
1912 : 

"OiTv KxrERTS Are Strongly of the Opin- 
ion That Injuries From the Boll-Weevil 
Would Be Greatly DiMiNisiiEn or Obviated 
Altogether if All the Cotton Stalks and 
Unripe Bolls Were Removed Early in the 
Fall." 

This is precisely what would be done, as the stal'cs anrl 
pods can be made full use of for very valuable by- 
products (as valuable as the cotton itself) instead of be- 
ing reploughed into the ground, forming nourishment for 
insects. 

11. By our process this company has matured beauti- Cotton pro- 
ful white cotton from immature bolls that were P^inc- J^^',^'^'^^^^'^' 
tured by the boll-wee\'il — some bolls in more than one {^"j,"'^'"""® 
square and one boll punctured in all four squares — and 

yet this cotton was produced where the poison had not 
yet spread. This same grade of cotton was also pro- 
duced from two squares of an immature boll where two 
of the remaining squares had rotted. These results on 
the elimination of the boll-weevil and economical saving 
of cotton are far reaching. 



Successful 

cotton 

growing. 



12. Statistics have been given ns showing that the 
cotton prochiction of this country has increased so greatly 
within the last twenty years West of the Mississi])pi 
River that the Western States now produce nearly thirty 
per cent, of the entire cotton crop of the United States. 
This is due to their long summer climate, freedom from 
frost, boll-weevils, etc., and other serious disadvantages 
under which the Southern cotton section now labors. 
If these conditions continue, it would seem probable that 
the production of cotton would increase more and more 
in the Western sections of the country, and tlie South 
would eventually lose the present supremacv it now pos- 
sesses in cotton growing. This being the fact, our pro- 
cess of maturing cotton, releasing the Southern cotton 
planter from the foregoing terrible disad\'antages, insur- 
ing him practically against these handicaps and r^lacing his 
section once more where th.e soil and nature intended it, 
would be of incalculable value to him. 



Maturing 
operation 
quick and 
inexpensive. 



13. The time consumed in maturing cotton bv this 
process is very short, ranging from two to th.ree hours. 
We estimate that one man can mature from six to ten 
bales a day according to the size of the machine. The 
picking from the opened boll would be more cjuicklv done 
as there is a method by which the picking w.ould be done 
by machinery in the ginnery immediatclv after the cotton 
had been matured, infinitely quicker and cheaper, of 
course, than is now done bv hand in the field. 



Demand for 
cotton. 



14. The demand for cotton is constantly increasing 
and other rival products are decreasing in consumption, 
the "wool production alone having decreased from 
2,750,000 bales in 1895 to 1,750,000 in 1905." (C. W. 
Burkett's book "Cotton," page 5.) "The day is not far 
distant when the United States will consume the bulk of 
her own cotton." (Page 50, British Cotton Growing As- 



sociation Pamphlet No. 53, January, 1913.) With this 
new and improved product this demand would certainly 
still further increase, and as capital would naturally only 
plant the best grades of cotton in the new fields that would 
be taken up (as its success would be assured from the 
start), it would mean more and more a cotton of a higher 
standard. Indeed as Mr. Burkett in "Cotton" (page 69) 
says, of the seed alone: 

"So rapiflly are we finding new uses for them — 
all of which will be considered at greater length 
in other chapters of this book — that Mr. Edward 
Atkinson was probably not far wrong when he 
declared that it would be worth while for the 
South to grow great crops of cotton, even if the 
plant made no lint at all but seed only. How 
varied are the uses of cotton seed meal, oil, hulls 
and linters." 

15. By the adoption of this maturincr process there increased seed 

- "^ ' . . production. 

would be a tremendous increase in the production of seed. 

16. The tests from the seed by this process not onlv ^^ed more 

^ - valuable. 

show more oil than the same grade of seed naturally ma- 
tured, but it also takes out all the water. The seed can 
be stored and prevented from sweating", which is a most 
desirable quality. The seed naturally would sell for 
more and be more ^'n]uable for these reasons. 

17. Seed tests prove that the germination is not only ^.^pagation'*" 
not interfered with, but is hastened by picking the seed '•'*^''"'^'^- 
before maturity. The seed that has ripened on the stalk 

this year failed to germinate while our artificially matured 
seed of the same variety, which was picked two weeks 
before maturity, showed the plant two inches above the 
ground. This practice will, undoubtedly, provide a more 
rapidly maturing variety. 



OCT 10 1918 



8 



Pods for fuel. 



1 8. A crop of 16,000,000 bales of cotton means 
4,000,000 tons, and as the pods weigh in proportion to the 
crop about one-quarter, that would be 1,000,000 tons of 
pods available for good fuel at the ginnery, which, of 
course, means a great saving of fuel cost. 



New and 
very valuable 
market con- 
ditions. 



19. The planters, whose ginneries have this maturing 
machine, have the tremendous advantage (over rival cot- 
ton sections who have not this process) of being able at 
any time in their judgment as being the best time to pick 
unopened bolls from stalks on the field and send to their 
ginneries to be matured, and so take advantage of the 
most favorable market conditions by getting their cotton 
in the market a week or more ahead of competitors, who, 
without this machine, would have to wait the length of 
time necessary for their cotton to mature on the field, 
thus being put practically out of the market until it has 
been supplied by these more favored planters. The sec- 
tions, therefore, without this maturing machine would 
be at as great a financial disadvantage as if they had no 
telegraph, telephone or railroad facilities to rpiickly place 
their cotton in the market at the most favorable time. 

This would, of course, also mean that the lands of all 
planters having this maturing process at their service 
would at once increase greatly in value for the above 
economic reasons. 



Comparable 
to the 
"Whitney 
Cotton Gin." 



20. With these great economical results assured, it 
follows that this machine and process undoubtedly occu- 
pies, in the gathering and maturing of cotton, a greater 
place even than the "Whitney Cotton Gin" did in the 
ginning of cotton. 



Ainerican and 
foreign cotton 
authorities. 



21. The above facts have not only been gone over and 
endorsed by American and foreign cotton authorities, but 
many of them indeed have been suggested to us by these 
authorities. 



LiBRftRY Oi- 



me 927 127 2 



